Procurement Intelligence Unit

Again, through a side door, after a number of years in a senior marketing role, only having heard of purchasing from the direct materials avenue. I was asked to help the implementation of a eprocurement program and there after saw the great opportunity to develop the non product related spend area. An area which is often neglected and poorly practised.
Purchasing is often led by the finance function due to the great impact of the cost of direct materials. Enlightened companies have a procurement director and representation on the management team. Enlightened CEO's will state the procurement is the prefered internal partner in managing the supply of goods and services.

It is a progressive state and it is up to procurement management to get out from under the wings of other functions and communicate to the organisation the important role it can and will play in the efficient management of spend.

Again, through a side door, after a number of years in a senior marketing role, only having heard of purchasing from the direct materials avenue. I was asked to help the implementation of a eprocurement program and there after saw the great opportunity to develop the non product related spend area. An area which is often neglected and poorly practised.
Purchasing is often led by the finance function due to the great impact of the cost of direct materials. Enlightened companies have a procurement director and representation on the management team. Enlightened CEO's will state the procurement is the prefered internal partner in managing the supply of goods and services.

It is a progressive state and it is up to procurement management to get out from under the wings of other functions and communicate to the organisation the important role it can and will play in the efficient management of spend.

I got into Procurement by accident, I was working for a casino group in London doing F&B cost control and I was then charged with category management which then developed to encompass SRM and then procuring consumables for the Kitchen & Cellar, from there it just kept developing in my professional life, and now I cannot see myself doing anything else - I enjoy it far too much, it's a passion... Just got to find another engagement. 

I entered Procurement Function by default, one needs to be technically sound with knowledge of Costing and Estimations in the field of Printing, Source the Right Vendor who can deliver as per the standards laid down by Corporates.

I believe that the Professional Institutes that we belong to South Africa IPSA,Institute of Purchasing South Africa and similar bodies in UK,Europe and USA should be more active in marketing the Profession at grass roots, i.e.schools and colleges.Procurement seems to gain prominence during ressionary time.I got into Procurement by initially working for a Clearing and Forwarding Agent.Our main contact in Industry were the Procurement people.I found the two had a lot in common. Only after about 7 years of hands on training did I start to study and get educated in Procurement.I have a passion for the work I do and believe it can be said of most Procurement people.

To be honest, [I got into procurement] totally by accident. I got my Bachelor's Degrees in Special Education and Social Science, but then realized I wasn't effective as a teacher. So I floated around for a while, got brought into a large DoD contractor as a temp admin and networked my way into a perm job as the Procurement Assistant for one of the Business Areas. And then absolutely fell in love with the whole Procurement role. It was something I would never have even thought of on my own nor very likely considered if it was presented to me. I think part of the problem is the people think 1) you must like to shop to be in procurement. Not true, I hate shopping. For me it's about the process and solving sourcing issues. And 2) there's not a lot of visibility to the Procurement functions early on. How many school career days do you know of that have a procurement professional show up? Maybe we should.

 I started life training as a manufacturing engineer in metals. I had some experience in buying the raw material so when the buyer was absent I stepped in. It is true the talent have never heard of procurement as I had not even realised it was a career until I joined CIPS. 
It is also very hard to convince organisations that there is benefit and added value from using Procurement or Commercial professionals, most of them generally find this out when the employee that "done the buying" leaves!

 I was working in the Stores of the then Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) in the early 70s during the Miners strike. The country was on a three day week and manufacturers were sending the workforce home when the electricity supply was cut off. TV broadcasting finished at 10.30 p.m. every day in order to save electricity! I always wanted to be a Buyer and being young and ambitious volunteered to work with a team that was established to convert a Power Station from coal to oil. This involved negotiating (begging) for essential supplies from suppliers who often had just had their power turned off. The work also involved putting false bottoms in bread vans and organising lifts by helicopter to ensure supplies avoided the heavy picketing. There were questions in Parliament about it but nothing was revealed until the project was completed. I then moved to the private sector and successfully applied my skills to the procurement profession. I agree with the key points in your article and one of the challenges facing our profession is that with few exceptions the commercial world does not understand the commercial role of procurement. Finance and Legal to which many procurement roles report are not commercial functions. In the public sector it is regarded as a process (as a consequence of EU regulations) and regrettably too many CIPS members regard the attainment of membership as the pinnacle of their careers, when really it is just the start. To raise the standards of our profession we need to ensure that CPD is a mandatory requirement, as it is with Finance and Legal. The regular Government contract disasters reflect the complete lack of commercial skills and judgement at the heart of Whitehall and I wonder how long we will have to wait before something is done to correct this situation. Surely our profession has something to offer to correct this serious situation.

Procurement has never been seen as a profession then a merely a support function in few decades ago, the organisation dynamic has changed because of organisational innovation and introduction new technology, these factors are driving force to rethink about procurement function such as outsourcing, contract manufacturing, p3 logistics, and in the contemporary world procurement function has a kind of status in industry, but again, there are plenty of room for improvement. Training and Development as well as steadfast research require.

As a marketing major in college my choice of profession was always going to be selling or buying. I got that from my grandfather who was a salesman in his early years. As I was very interested in getting into the federal government, 3rd generation, I was limited to the buying side. I always enjoyed the challenges of getting the best product or service for my customers without breaking their budget. I started in small purchases, imprest funds, and BPAs. I took all the procurement courses that GSA and a few commercial vendors offered and eventually moved to the contracts side. I do find it interesting that when I started there was no requirement for college degrees or other certifications beyond the GSA courses for contracting officers. A lot has changed over the years.

I started at the age of 20 with no experience whatsoever. I was young and computer saavy. I responded to an ad and they were apparently as desperate to hire me as I was to be hired. I started at the bottom and learned as much as I possibly could. By the time the contract was over, I was hooked. I found another job in purchasing and the rest is history. 17 years later, I'm still in purchasing and still enjoying it. 
I think it takes a really good trainer to train someone without experience. I've been tasked with training every buyer who came after me. Know your system, know your products and know your suppliers. After that, the rest is a cake walk.

 We need more companies and educational institutions from a "Top Down" perpective to reconize Procurement and Supply Chain Management as a KEY and CRITICAL strategic function. As many of these organizations have changed finance and HR from a support/tactile role to a strategic role.....the same needs to be changed regarding Procurement.

It was one of life’s happy little accidents that got me into procurement. 
I was between roles when I invited to an interview for an IT procurement officer. I knew very little about IT and even less about procurement [some say nothing's changed]; because of a serious traffic accident I was an hour late for the interview and had written the job off. 
The interview must’ve seen something he liked; I was offered the job and ended up staying for five years. 
I very quickly realised that procurement was the role I’d spent a life time searching for and for the past eleven years I’ve had an absolute ball – enjoying every minute. 
I’m now coming to the end of an interim role and can’t wait to find the next one.

Thanks for the feedback guys, it seems like most of you have come to the function through non-traditional means, but it also sounds like you are largely happy working in the function which is a great result.

I have to agree with Harry that procurement bodies and procurement leadership teams need to be more active in ensuring students have an understanding of what our function does and how it can provide a challenging and fulfilling career. 

To be honest, it was totally by accident. I got my Bachelor's Degrees in Special Education and Social Science, but then realized I wasn't effective as a teacher. So I floated around for a while, got brought into a large DoD contractor as a temp admin and networked my way into a perm job as the Procurement Assistant for one of the Business Areas. And then absolutely fell in love with the whole Procurement role. It was something I would never have even thought of on my own nor very likely considered if it was presented to me. I think part of the problem is the people think 1) you must like to shop to be in procurement. Not true, I hate shopping. For me it's about the process and solving sourcing issues. And 2) there's not a lot of visibility to the Procurement functions early on. How many school career days do you know of that have a procurement professional show up? Maybe we should.

It wasn't a clear career direction from uni. Got my degree in Business Management and wanted to do sales. Fell into a role for an agricultural reseller as their purchasing manager for 7 years, switched to sales for 3 years, then back to a procurment / marketing roll again in agriculture.

As a marketing major in college my choice of profession was always going to be selling or buying. I got that from my grandfather who was a salesman in his early years. As I was very interested in getting into the federal government, 3rd generation, I was limited to the buying side. I always enjoyed the challenges of getting the best product or service for my customers without breaking their budget. I started in small purchases, imprest funds, and BPAs. I took all the procurement courses that GSA and a few commercial vendors offered and eventually moved to the contracts side. I do find it interesting that when I started there was no requirement for college degrees or other certifications beyond the GSA courses for contracting officers. A lot has changed over the years.

I started at the age of 20 with no experience whatsoever. I was young and computer saavy. I responded to an ad and they were apparently as desperate to hire me as I was to be hired. I started at the bottom and learned as much as I possibly could. By the time the contract was over, I was hooked. I found another job in purchasing and the rest is history. 17 years later, I'm still in purchasing and still enjoying it. 
I think it takes a really good trainer to train someone without experience. I've been tasked with training every buyer who came after me. Know your system, know your products and know your suppliers. After that, the rest is a cake walk.

 I agree with Gary. Procurement is often looked at like the black sheep of the corporate family. We, more often than not, tend to be the scape goat for when things don't go as planned. It can be a highly stressful job that's often under appreciated. The sales guys get all the glory, but the purchasing guys make it happen.

 I agree with Gary and William. I entered the procurement function back in 1979 as an enlisted member of the United States Air Force. We had a formal techincal school at Lowry AFB in Denver. The basic class was four weeks and additional training was offered on a broad range of procurement areas. In the early 1990's, the Air Force started to treat the people in the Contracting Career field as professions and offered certifications based upon your experience and training completed. 
I think it would be a great benefit if more colleges offered a specialized degree in this area. I'm sure most of us started at the entry level as a buyer and worked their way up. 
Most procurement departments should stand alone since we tend to work with every department or division within the companies we work for.

Rich, without a doubt, 100% correct. Every employee, and some external companies, are all customers of procurement. We have to be everything to everyone in the company, from the guy (or gal) who is buddy buddy with the punch press operators, all the way up to being able to do formal presentations and reports for "Chief" level senior management. We have dotted lines to every department, and aside from sales have the largest impact on the company's profitability. 
I still think it's a shame that the procurement field is so segmented. IT, Manufacturing, Aerospace, and Pharma procurement all demand specific industry knowledge. Unless it's a new venture start up, there's no reason why procurement can not cross into other areas of expertise. Companies keep records, and typically, when someone starts a new position, they're going to go with previous supply chains before switching to a new supplier with better value.

If I got your question right then you probably want to say that people getting into Procurement are not professionals or have no credentials to be in this profession.In fact, Procurement , being largely a non technical function of business has never been dominated by those who have certain academic certifications. It has been mostly at the whims of the CEO as to who he wants into procurement.The scene is now changing. Professionally managed companies are engaging procurement people and that way the talent is getting attracted towards it.Still, one has to go miles to see a day when all companies are managed professionally.

Rich, without a doubt, 100% correct. Every employee, and some external companies, are all customers of procurement. We have to be everything to everyone in the company, from the guy (or gal) who is buddy buddy with the punch press operators, all the way up to being able to do formal presentations and reports for "Chief" level senior management. We have dotted lines to every department, and aside from sales have the largest impact on the company's profitability.
I still think it's a shame that the procurement field is so segmented. IT, Manufacturing, Aerospace, and Pharma procurement all demand specific industry knowledge. Unless it's a new venture start up, there's no reason why procurement can not cross into other areas of expertise. Companies keep records, and typically, when someone starts a new position, they're going to go with previous supply chains before switching to a new supplier with better value. 

It wasn't a clear career direction from uni. Got my degree in Business Management and wanted to do sales. Fell into a role for an agricultural reseller as their purchasing manager for 7 years, switched to sales for 3 years, then back to a procurment / marketing roll again in agriculture.

I got into Procurement via a graduate scheme, that allowed grads to spend c6 month in each of the blue-chip businesses' commercial functions. I agree that perhaps few go directly into a Procurement career, but I honestly think that's a positive - Having gleaned an understanding of Finance or Manufacturing, etc, that assists with your understanding of business structure and the complex relationships between departments - Pivotal for a successful Procurement career, and to further develop the perception of purchasing...

As my dad has been active in sales for all of his live, I had heard about 'those purchasing people' before, but it wasn't a very fair/kind picture I had of it. My dad used to describe them as 'difficult people, always trying to cut down the price'. 
Started myself in sales after graduating as engineer in biochemistry, and fell by accident in the procurement job. Went for a job interview as a sales account mgr, but after the tests they proposed the open vacancy in purchasing. I was attracted to the function because of its versatility and because I can make analyses etc. myself. 
Sales and procurement are actually very similar, as a sales person you want to think with the client, ask him what he wants, to come up with the best mutual agreement for both parties. As a purchaser you do the same thing, but you add some competition and challenge the promises made by sales people.

Part of the problem is the title itself, and also the variety of job titles, job descrptiions and definitions in circulation. I once saw a definition of 'Procurement' that was "A posh word for purchasing or buying". I like that, it does what it says on the tin.
Now before the inevitable avalanche of outraged comments and endless definitions of Procurement, Purchasing, Buying, Logistics etc etc let me answer your other question.
After a 13 year career in military logistics with end to end experience from working with the MOD Procurement Executive to spending large parts of my time "in the field" with 'Tactical Supply Wing' and 'Mobility', doing my job while humping a weapon, I started a second career in purchasing.
I was lucky, my first job was with a small (I was the 25th employee) leading-edge opto-electronic manufacture of commercial and defence communications systems, that had sprung out of the demise of the ITT Opto-Electronics Factory in Leeds.
Although small, they knew the value of professional purchasing. That set me on a 20 year career in the private and latterly the public sector working mainly for manufacturig companies, but also for service providers and a NDPB. For the last six years (nearly seven) I have been contracting in the public sector.
The government needs to do more to raise awareness of procurement and promote apprenticeships etc. This of course was not helped by David Cameron's idiotic, inaccurate and stero-typical comment that public sector procurement people are “enemies of enterprise”. Well done David a balanced view based upon deep and meaningful research I am sure, not at all to do with jumping on band wagons.Some Public Sector buyers are of course pedants and transactional types that wouldn't understand real procurement if it bit them on the bottom, but there are a large number who are professional, seek to assist SME's and to streamline the process. By the way David, 'Lean' means something other than 'SME friendly' I suggest you look it up in a business book, Vince Cable probably has one.
Sorry folks, bit of a tirade there. Back to simplicity, why don't you all try the Guinness test? You walk into a bar, you ask for a pint of Guinness and as he (or she) starts to pour it, they say "so what do you do then?". Can you describe what you do in a way that they will understand, before the Guinness settles?
I say "I'm a buyer" they say "what do you buy?" I respond "everything, nice pint, keep the change". Because whether at Director level or humble erk, Strategic or Operational that is what I do, I and my teams buy, we buy professionally, we buy well and we make it possible for our organisations to be more effective, profitable and sustainable. 

Being a procurement , you must like to negotiate. Negotiate is not an easy as people think, we need time and must be taft . Sometimes if the user need the the goods urgently .We don't have so much time to negotiate . This make me not satisfy. In the others hand, if the supplier don't commit their delivery . We need some trick to push them to follow our request. We don't need to be angry, but we must take win to win solution to handle this problem.

I wanted to run the railway, but flunked the interview when I was 17 to get onto the training program. My Dad suggested "Supplies Management" as an alternative on the railway (another training scheme). He had run materials and supply operations in the Army and said "people will always need stuff." At that time, a job after college sounded great, so I applied and never looked back. 
Now I am looking at the full breadth of "Supply Chain Management" and see the same issue - kids do't realise it is a potential career, yet companies are putting all SCM disciplines on their rotation plans for tomorrow's C-suite folks. 
We need to market ourselves better! I once did a CIPS career booth at Roedean School and it was very easy to extol the virtues of purchasing tied to merchandising in the fashion industry. 
I am a founder member of the Supply Chain Talent Academic Initiative and we identified the same issues. In fact, I did some survey research of students in SCM programs to find out why they were in those programs. Kayleigh - contact me if you want to co-author an article! 
Nick - MCIPS, CPSM

 very true.... Selvie Mulyadi. the important thing is to handle the problem according to the time. if we resolved the problem using some tricks or with a lots of discussion with vendor than we become a good procurement manager. yes, negotiation is much important.

 I have noticed that most of the people came from Accounts or Sales department to join the procurement department as I worked for 4 years and a half as Accountant but once I make the interview as a buyer position, they inform me that they need someone with accounting background to deal direct with Account Payable so I have accepted that job and what I found is totally different than what they explain to me but I like it more than accounts department as its always challanging to be in procurement.

I think it was by accident too for me. I was a commercial assistant, than a project manager and I did experience some negotiating during that period. In my company, there was a role available and I asked to move internally... That was the start of my purchasing career :-) there aren't specific education classes in purchasing. You can get some training when you enrol in some purchasing organisation, but that's it. I think that the basic skill of a good purchaser is to be a good listener and be able to identify your internal customer's need and translate it into saving, respecting his KPI's and quality standards

 For me,it was a passion that I developed during my early years in college... This enabled me to chart my career towards becoming a procurement professional.. Good communication and customer service skills are essential.

I started in procurement the same way as Rich by attending a Procurement Officer course.
Outsourcing has had a major negative impact on procurement as it has moved many of the junior buying level jobs to other companies or other countries making it difficult for unskilled people to enter the field. That is the usual feeder point for a career. 
My experience across a number of industries is that while there may be similarities, each industry is different and it takes some time for people to learn the business. Companies want specific industry knowledge so they don't have that learning curve with the people they hire. 
I believe procurement may be part of the problem in doing something similar thing to what industry recruiters do to them. When you need to hire a person for a job which do you do? Do you go after the best and brightest that may not have all the procurement skills that will have a learning curve? Or do you want to fill their positions with people purchasing people that can contribute now? If you really want the best and brightest you need to plan on making the investment to develop them.
Procurement associations might better serve their members by developing training on specific commodities and specific industries that their members could take and get certified to facilitate movement of their members into new commodities or new industries.
My last comment is as they market continues to be more and more competitive individuals need to take more personal time and sometimes spend their own money to keep building upon your knowledge and skills. Most companies have cut training budgets.I write a Blog called Knowledge to Negotiate in which I've been sharing knowledge about a number of topics people should be aware of for negotiations, especially contract negotiations. Its free so the only thing people need to invest is their time to read. The thing I find interesting is when its the weekend or after business hours, traffic falls off dramatically which tells me people aren't willing to invest their own time to learn and that surprises me. If you want to take a look at the blog you can go to my profile and click on blog or go to knowledgetonegotiate.blogspot,com 

Good debate going on here.. the key I feel is that Purchasing need to been seen as as "Purchasing Buddy" not as a "Purchasing Policeman". the profound effects that Purchasing can have on a companies bottom line is outstanding if manged correctly. Top Down commitment with stakeholder "buyin" is imperative. often companies try and increase sales as a way of improving profits and spend £m's training sales staff to this aid!

As I am reading all of the comments, I am amazed at how all have landed in the procurement world. I was very much involved in Procurement/Strategic Sourcing and then thought I would switch careers and start something new. Long story short, I came back to procurement and now have found out through on going education that Procurement and supply management will be all one in the near future if you are going for any certifications as I am pursuing. Better yet, since ISM-CPSM certifications are so new that not many companies are not aware of how powerful this certification and what it has to offer. So, keep in mind, if they have no idea of procurement, imagine what I am going through when I try to explain what I want to be when I grow up and I get puzzled looks............. 

 I agree with Gary…..”We need more business and colleges to recognize Procurement not as a Support Function” 
Interviewing for a Position…. I told the hiring manager that I want to build my career in Procurement. The hiring manager reply was “Procurement is not a career, it is a position”, and I would be able to move up with the company. 
My entire background led me into Procurement. And I actually did not know that “Procurement” was the name of the position I wanted. I started by searching “buyer” and “contract administrator” and came up with the job title “procurement”, and started applying and was hired by a temp agency to provide procurement. 
I think the main thing that will help someone break into procurement is to have a keen eye for detail , ability to read and understand contracts, negotiation skills, and computer experience in Oracle, or a different ERP system. 
I currently hold an Associated Degree, am working on Bachelors, will go to MBA. I have a few certifications from PMI, and another from CMAA. I am forever taking classes to increase my knowledge, and this is important to any career. So whatever career you want…. Make sure you become educated; just because someone 20 years ago “fell” into Procurement, does not mean that employers will let that happen again…. More and more companies are looking for seasoned professional procurement staff, because they are starting to become more aware of the savings it creates, and the legalities it helps them avoid. 
If you can't read a contract.. or don't understand contracts when you read them (like your cell phone contract, or your gym membership contract) then Procurement is not for you. You cannot purchase under terms and conditions of a contract if you cannot read contracts.

Like so many others, I sort of "fell" into the purchasing world. I worked in an automotive plant as an engineer and quickly understood that the purchasing organization needed some technical support. I moved into a hybrid role between manufacturing and purchasing, helping the buyers understand why price is not always the most important factor. That was over 20 years ago, and I have never had regrets about my decision to work in purchasing.

Yes, Procurement seems to be a field where mostly come by chance. I found this field as a challenging one, though I found difficulties coz of technology unawareness. than I took admission in Masters in Technology management to deeply understand the management of technology and to procure best out of market. Now I'm happy and enjoying working in this field.
Most of us has to polish ourselves to fit best in this field. I wish that there would be some formal education being offered from school level.

Procurement as a profession has not received a lot of attention or respect until recently, say the past 15 years or so. Mainly procurement "professionals" have been imported from other job functions. There are a few colleges/universities that do offer degree programs for Procurement, ASU (AZ State University) is one of those, and there are some others in the East that do offer that discipline as a major, but they are hard to find.

I have about 25 years in Sourcing, Procurement, & Supplier Management. However, I also was a transplant. Starting out in an Electronics Engineering department of a major printer company, then onto Mfg Engineering, then Test and Quality Management, then Production Control and Materials Management, then finally, the holy grail, PROCUREMENT, where I found a home.

I think my vast and varied background and experience (not to mention education) in all those areas put me on a path to guarantee my success in the field of Procurement and Sourcing management. After 25+ years in that discipline, I finally started my own company, GlobaLinking INT'L.

At GlobaLinking INT'L we specialize in sourcing and manufacturing a companies electromechanical items in Asia, using our proven quality factories with globally competitive prices and international quality and tooling standards.

So, from my perspective, experience is the best teacher, and maybe sometime in the next decade, other colleges and universities will decide to offer Procurement, Sourcing, and/or Materials Management as a major.

It's true, procurement is a hidden profession... I fell into it, looking for a temporary position as I pursued my career as an actor. Now, 22 years later, my real career is in procurement, one for which I received no college training, but which has fit well with my strengths. I remember a lunch question similar to this ten years ago, and it turned out that everyone -- former teachers, lawyers, accountants, home economists -- all of us fell into their position. I am not terribly worried about this situation. But I would definitely hire a qualified odd duck who had studied procurement as career -- a minority candidate, for sure!

I went from sales to procurement. For me, it was a simple decision to try the other side of the table. Like one of the other comments I read, I never looked back after making the change. One issue with people hearing about "procurement" is that there are too many definitions that seem to confuse people about what the function is and what we do. Is it procurement or purchasing, or is it supply chain managment? It seems to depend on who you're talking to. Another issue with attracting talent is the perception that we have a back office, purely transactional role. When speaking to potential recruits for my department, I find myself explaining the strategic nature of the role very heavily. A lot of people are just not aware of that part of procurement.

Corporate career management. It was time for a move, and one day a guy came to visit me and said "have you ever thought about procurement?". I hadnt't. I remember thinking "I suppose we must buy stuff". How ignorant I was. 
After 20 years I am still waiting for business to wake up to the importance of procurement.

 My expereince started in the US Army as a Contract Officer Representative and later a Director of Procurement and Contradcts. In Industry my "fast track" path began in Sales/Marketing & Business Development, led to Operations Management and then Purchasing Manager, on contract....I had Operations and Sales expereince covering both functions, but then focused on Purchasing. Morphed to Global Stragtegic Sourcing then Supply Chain....Procurement/Purchasing are a subset of the Value Stream called Supply Chain.

I am engineer. I started out as Sales Manager, had my own company for a while then I sold it and was asked to jump-start a company in Austria - SCM and Marketing job mainly. When I came home I needed a change so I accepted a Buyer job, then another one, then another one. I am only 33 but I believe I will stick to sourcing to make "the career". I think the variety and complexity of the challenges is what keeps me here. I am self-educated in sourcing too. I read many books about it but I don't think sourcing can be thought from books only. I think you need the right personality: agility, strategic thinking, and maybe experience in several industries and positions to get procurement done right. I always believed and from the above comments I got my confirmation that you have to grow ripe to be good at it.

At the end you are right... all of your procurement means to be proactive Honest and commit them self’s.

I started my career as a warehouse operative, picking orders. Even it that role, and as a teenager at the time, it was obvious to me that the company I worked for simply didn’t have what customers wanted, when they wanted it. When I was offered a chance to take on a buying role and influence this, I didn’t hesitate. I soon realised that you could also influence the price, choice of supplier, and ultimately how my company was perceived. I left that company 9 years later as Purchasing Manager, and had taken the ‘first time fill rate’ from 65% to 95%. In the years that followed I held customer service, tendering (for business) and warehouse management roles, but Procurement offers the chance to have the greatest influence, if it’s allowed, and that leads to job satisfaction for me. I’ve been firmly back in Procurement for the last 8 years.

I was actually recruited into the field by an ultimate direct report. I have to admit I had a very poor perception of purchasing functions and personnel. I couldn't have been more wrong. She did a huge favor for my career.

Started off as a legal assistant in the legal department's procurement team, just assisting the solicitors with legal stuff. Didn't even know what procurement was when i started, I was just marginally better than the only other person they interviewed. Then I got a secondment to corporate procurement to cover maternity leave.

the universities and coleges should start offering procurement and supply chain at bacholor degree program this will help the up coming procuremnent pratitioners

the universities and coleges should start offering procurement and supply chain at bacholor degree program this will help the up coming procuremnent pratitioners

the universities and coleges should start offering procurement and supply chain at bacholor degree program this will help the up coming procuremnent pratitioners

the universities and coleges should start offering procurement and supply chain at bacholor degree program this will help the up coming procuremnent pratitioners

At 19, I got a job at a very large electronic component distributor, "posting" the components activities of one of manufacturers they represented. I moved up to Assist. Product Manager. I was there 2 years. I took a job as an electronic component buyer at a very small company. I absolutely loved it! I've been at 3 companies since that first one, the last one for 26 years. I have been a buyer of multiple type items over the last 32 + years and it has been very interesting! I'm looking for a new adventure!